Up to 25 years in a penal colony: 12 defendants sentenced in the Mačuliščy case
On August 19, the trial in the high-profile case of Mačuliščy attack began in the Minsk City Court. Twelve people, most of them in absentia, were charged under 11 articles of the Criminal Code at once, including "an act of terrorism" (Part 3 of Article 289 of the Criminal Code) and "treason to the state" (Part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code). They were accused of committing an attack in Mačuliščy in February 2023, where a Russian A-50 aircraft was damaged. On October 3, Valiantsina Ziankevich handed down a sentence in the case: from two years and three months to 25 years in a penal colony. Mikalai Shvets, who was released in June on an exchange with Ukraine, was sentenced in absentia to 25 years of imprisonment.
Recall that on the morning of February 26, 2023, explosions occurred at the Mačuliščy airfield near an expensive Russian long-range reconnaissance aircraft A-50, which was blown up in two places. It was used to aim Russian missiles at targets in Ukraine. It was reported that the aircraft is currently under repair at the 325th Aviation Repair Plant, which is part of the Beriev Taganrog Aviation Scientific Technical Complex in Russia.
Recall that the main person involved in the case and, according to official authorities and propagandists, the person who carried out the attack, Mikalai Shvets, was released in June on an exchange with Ukraine. But he was tried anyway. The defendants are Maksim Lapatsin, Andrei Stsiapurka, Aleh Sychou and his wife Anastasiya Pilko, Dzianis Sakalou. According to the ONT propaganda film, they were all assistants in the case, but they did not know exactly who Shvets was and what exactly he needed help with. Thus, Maksim Lapatsin drove Shvets from Stolin to the Lahojsk highway, Andrei Stsiapurka helped him find an apartment near Minsk, Aleh Sychou and Anastasiya Pilko rented him the apartment. And Dzianis Sakalou, who turned out to be a friend of Iryna Abelskaya's son and an alleged informer, as Nasha Niva writes, allegedly helped deliver the drone and find a job for Mikalai Shvets.
Mikalai Shvets was tried in absentia along with Aliaksandr Azarau, Ala Yatsuta, Vital Yakutsik, Yauheniya Tachytskaya, Mikhail Dziomin, and Siarhei Loparau.
The defendants in the case were charged under 11 articles of the Criminal Code at once: "assistance in extremist activities" (Part 1 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code), "financing of terrorist activities" (Part 1 of Article 290-1 of the Criminal Code), "treason to the state" (Part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code), "participation in actions grossly violating public order" (Part 1 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code), "agent activity" (Part 1 of Article 358 of the Criminal Code), "causing malfunction of a vehicle" (Part 4 of Article 309 of the Criminal Code), "act of terrorism" (Part 3 of Article 289 of the Criminal Code), "creation or participation in an extremist formation" (Part 3 361-1 of the Criminal Code), "financing of an extremist formation" (Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code), "illegal actions regarding explosives" (Part 4 of Article 295 of the Criminal Code), "training for participation in terrorist activities" (Articles 290-3 of the Criminal Code).
On October 4, the Prosecutor General's Office published the details.
It became known that Mikalai Shvets, Aliaksandr Azarau, Vital Yakutsik, Mikhail Dziomin were accused of "an act of terrorism" and "intentionally causing malfunction of an aircraft" (Part 3 of Article 289, Part 4 of Article 309 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus). In addition, Azarou, Dziomin, Yakutsik, Saklaou, Tachytskaya, Loparau, and Lapatsin were accused of "treason to the state" (Part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code); and Shvets, Yatsuta and Sychou, in "agent activity" (Article 358-1 of the Criminal Code). Mikalai Shvets was also accused of "undergoing training and other training to participate in terrorist activities" and "illegal trafficking of explosives and explosive devices" (Part 4 of Article 295, Article 290-3 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus).
In addition, Yakutsik, Sakalou, Stsiapurka, Pilko, Lapatsin, Tachytskaya, Loparau, and Sychou were found guilty of "financing terrorist and extremist activities" (Article 290-1, Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code), "participation in extremist formation" (Part 3 of Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code), as well as "active participation in actions grossly violating public order" (Part 1 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code), in various combinations.
As a result, Shvets was sentenced in absentia to 25 years in a penal colony; and other defendants in the case, from 15 to 25 years of imprisonment. It is reported that the other defendants in the case were sentenced to imprisonment for a period of 2 years and 3 months to 15 years.
